Kyub Demo Tutorial 1 on Propellerhead Reason

How to duplicate the whammy bar demo

I usually like to start with a blank slate. Go to the File menu/New from Template/ Empty Plus FX (see below)

Now delete all the FX's by right clicking on the device and selecting Delete Devices and Tracks (Oops-highlight the selection above what is highlighted in the picture below).

Right-click on the black empty area of the rack and select Create Instrument (you can see a little of the black in the above image). In the menu that comes up, root around until you find ALL Instrument Patches (this is in a box level with the three orange cubes of the reason logo)/Guitar and Plucked. Look in that folder for Electric guitar/ Tube Guitar

Then right-click on the black area and select Instruments/Doctor Octo Rex Loop Player. Do this once again. You should now have one NN-XT and two loop Dr. Octo players like this.

Set the upper Dr. to Acoustic Drums/College 130-1. Turn the volume of the lower Dr all the way down.

Scroll all the way to the top of the rack and press the Advanced MIDI button (to row far right as shown below). It should look something like this:

Note that I have the fast ASIO4All drivers (if you don't have this an ASIO driver and your sound card supports ASIO, you can download ASIO4All for free--it is much faster than the windows drivers). You can see the Teensy MIDI is connected--that's the Kyub. Press a few buttons on your Kyub and you should see channel 4 light up (unless you reprogrammed it). Your signal may not come in on bus A--try the other bus buttons if you don't see something blinking. (Thanks, Ruud). Push the button to the right of the words: Channel 4 and select the Combinator as shown below. If anyone knows what the "mix channel" is, let me know, I figured this out through trial and error.

Press the run button on the top Dr. Octo and play the Kyub softly for the muted sounds and harder for the fuzz. Shake the Kyub to get the whammy or tip is slowly for something with more control. It's easy to overdo this stuff so subtlety makes for a more sophisticated experience.

Note: the second Doctor Octo is intended for the sole purpose of drawing what appears to be a leaking MIDI signal into a harmless device. Without this second unit, the MIDI signal also triggers the top Dr Octo. I have no idea why. Someday I'll have to take a class on this.

Tips on whammy

Hold box top up when playing. Watch the wheel control on the synth move when the box is tipped. Try tipping different angles and shaking.